Scotia Plaza in Toronto. (Courtesy KingSett, AIMCo)
KingSett Capital and AIMCo have announced Scotiabank will remain the anchor tenant at the Scotia Plaza office complex in downtown Toronto, renewing a 560,000-square-foot lease at the 40 King St. and 100 Yonge St. towers.
The renewal follows a year of planning and discussions, the co-owners say in a release, but the agreement means Scotiabank is vacating space at the top of the 40 King St. West tower. This means, “For the first time since the building’s construction, one of the best office spaces in Canada will be available for lease in 2023,” the owners say.
“We are very pleased that Scotiabank will continue to be a prominent tenant in the complex that bears its name. This renewal is a testament to how valued partners can work together to achieve a collective objective,” said Bill Logar, KingSett Capital’s executive vice-president of asset management, in the announcement Monday morning.
“Sustainable premium office real estate continues to be integral to promoting collaboration and productivity among employees in the workplace.”
Financial details of the renewal were not released.
Scotiabank has 1.1 million square feet
The renewal brings Scotiabank’s long-term commitment at the Scotia Plaza Complex to 1.1 million square feet.
KingSett, which owns its share as part of its Canadian Real Estate Income Fund (CREIF), and AIMCo have invested $85 million in capital improvements for the complex over the last five years.
“This extension is a testament to the outstanding efforts of our operating and tenant partners. Scotia Plaza’s zero-carbon certification fully aligns to AIMCo’s sustainability commitments and the property continues to be a great investment for our clients,” said Tony Vadacchino, director, real estate, for AIMCo.
In addition to Scotiabank’s ongoing commitment at Scotia Plaza, the bank has also committed to a major lease just a few buildings away at the new Scotiabank North Tower at Bay Adelaide Centre.
The bank is taking about 420,000 square feet in that new 32-storey, 810,000-squar- foot office tower at 40 Temperence St., which is currently under construction.
The Bay Adelaide complex is being developed by Brookfield Property Partners.
“We are proud to renew our tenancy in Scotia Plaza, the largest zero carbon-certified building in Canada. We continue to believe in the importance of having a prominent, physical location in Toronto’s downtown core” said Stephen Morson, the senior vice-president of real estate for Scotiabank.
The Scotia Plaza complex is comprised of four buildings: 40 King St. W., 44 King St. W., 100 Yonge St. and 11 Adelaide St. W.
Scotia Plaza’s 40 King St. W. is one of four buildings (at more than 1.5 million square feet) that has earned the Zero Carbon Building – Performance v2 Certification from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).
The tower is undergoing a transition to remove all carbon-intensive mechanical systems over the next 18 months, to take it beyond the certification’s latest zero-carbon balance requirements by also offsetting its emissions from waste-to-landfill generated onsite.
The building has also achieved the largest Fitwel certification in Canada for a multi-tenant base building. Other environmental certifications include LEED Platinum and WiredScore Certified: Gold.
About AIMCo and KingSett
AIMCo is one of Canada’s largest and most diversified institutional investment managers with more than $118 billion of assets under management. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 31 pensions, endowments and government funds.
Founded in 2002, KingSett has raised $12 billion of private equity for its growth, income, urban, mortgage and affordable housing strategies. KingSett owns interests in an $18.4-billion portfolio of assets and continues investing in a wide range of real estate properties, developments, joint ventures and mortgage lending.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
